Shaman archetypes

[darth_borehd]

What do you think of the animist archetype? Is spirit wrangling worth giving up the first hex? The way I read it, I won't be able to take the Extra Hex feat until 5th level if taking this archetype. Is that correct?

What about the other archetypes? Is it better just to stick with standard shaman for a support role?

[Markov Spiked Chain]

Animist doesn't really jump out as being awesome to me.

But Speaker for the Past, True Silver Throne, Unsworn Shaman, and Witch Doctor can all be good, depending on what you want to do and what Spirits you're thinking about using.

[darth_borehd]

I am going for Lore Spirit and I want concentrate on buffing and debuffing. I might wind up as the healer as the party's cleric might be leaving.

[Secret Wizard]

Witch Doctor might be nice then. I think it can combine with Speaker for the Past for more combat utility (Time Revelation has some awesome buffs/debuffs).

[Markov Spiked Chain]

Hmm, I think Lore is much better as a Wandering Spirit than as a primary Spirit, so that you can change up your Arcane Enlightenment spells every day, Perhaps only being able to change them every level wouldn't be so bad.

I've had a lot of fun with a Life/Lore Witch Doctor channeling build. I did a Fateful channel Pharasma worshipper, but you could do a Milani worshipper. Something like:
Selective Channel
Extra Hex(Evil Eye)
Hopeful Channel
Quick Channel (I actually retrained my second feat so I had this at 5th)

With Hexes like Chant, Misfortune, Life Link, and Arcane Enlightenment wandering at 6th.

At 5th, your channels are giving everyone +2 morale bonuses to most rolls, at 6th you can pick up Haste, and at 7th you can Channel to buff and then cast to buff more or debuff in the same round. With a good investment in Cha, you'll have 12-14 channels to basically keep that buff up all combat.

If you want to go Lore primary, I'd probably just go straight Speaker for the Past. You'll pick up Heroism through Spirit Magic, and some good options for revelations. I feel like Witch Doctor loses too if you're not also getting channels from Life to make it worth investing feats in.

If you're really into the Lore hexes other than Arcane Enlightenment, you could also swap the Life/Lore build above to Lore/Life.

Two things I recommend you ask your GM for:
Add "All Knowledge skills are class skills." to the Lore spirit ability. It's super dumb that Lore shaman don't have Knowledge(Arcana) as a class skill, for example. Grr.
Change the level 1 Life spirit magic spell to Cure Light Wounds. Detect Undead was a cut and paste from Life Oracle, who already have CLW as a free spell known.